


comes in threes

by neotericbitch



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fix-It, it just didn't happen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:55:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22012177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neotericbitch/pseuds/neotericbitch
Summary: Rey makes for Ajan Kloss. Ben doesn’t stir the entire journey. Wherever she can find the opportunity to do so, she takes a hand off the controls and puts it down on him, feeling that he’s there, that he’s breathing, that he’s hers. He’s not going anywhere.–because we can all agree that ending didn't happen
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 3
Kudos: 69





	comes in threes

**Author's Note:**

> the alt title is "and then he takes a nap"
> 
> maybe maybe maybe  
> confess confess confess  
> yes yes yes

For a moment of pure shock and fear, Rey thinks he’s dead. She stares at his fallen form with wide, searching eyes, trying to take in every detail of him as if he’s just about to vanish. As if she’ll never see him again. She holds his hand tighter than she’s ever held anything before, fully leaned over him, nearly hyperventilating. It’s through her awareness of her own breathing that she becomes aware of his; the steady rise and fall of his torso, the previously frantic pulsing of blood in his wrist, mellowing with each second that passes. Rey has to be completely sure. She closes the final gap between them and puts her ear to his chest. His heartbeat greets her reassuringly, and Rey releases her every muscle, sprawling over him in relief. He’s alive. He’s alive and with her.

The citadel continues to crumble, and the wrecked remains of the Final Order fleet are sure to start hitting the planet’s surface at any time. They cannot stay here.

Rey expects it to be hard to lift him, but it’s not. Mentally she is exhausted and she wishes to do nothing more than stay lying on the floor, yet physical strength thrums through her without pause, even though she was drained and devoid of life only minutes ago. He gave her that life back, she knows; he gave her his strength. So Rey thinks no more of the mechanics of carrying such a large man and just does it, just hoists him over her shoulder and breaks for the exit.

Luke’s x-wing wasn't made for two and it will be a tight fit. She clears the astromech socket, making as much room as she can before laying Ben down - a bit crumpled but it’s the best she can do - then fixes herself at the pilot seat and takes off, eager to leave Exegol and its evils behind forever. There are ships all around her, none she knows but all she senses came to help in the fight, and that’s a fine comfort for the time being. She’ll feel much more secure when she sees the  _ Falcon _ , her friends.

Rey makes for Ajan Kloss. Ben doesn’t stir the entire journey. Wherever she can find the opportunity to do so, she takes a hand off the controls and puts it down on him, feeling that he’s there, that he’s breathing, that he’s hers. He’s not going anywhere.

She’s one of the last to arrive at the Resistance base, and the grounds are swarmed with people celebrating their victory. Fresh air blasts in as the cockpit opens and she indulges for a second in taking a deep breath, then unclasps the chin strap of her borrowed helmet and tugs it off. A loop of hair from her middle bun has gotten caught in there somewhere, and Rey yelps at the unexpected pull at her scalp and reaches behind her head, worrying at it until the helmet fully detaches and lands on the seat behind her. Her middle bun has loosened in a way that does a disservice to the structure of the other two, so she undoes the whole thing and her hair falls free. It’s a relief.

BB-8 trills loudly from below and Rey throws her upper half over the cockpit to see him, and the droid becomes all the more enthusiastic and starts to roll in circles, bleeping and blooping and imploring her to come down.

“In a minute,” she calls, her voice rough. “See if you can get me a stretcher.”

BB-8 beeps his compliance and hurries away. Rey kneels over Ben and hooks her arms under each of his shoulders, pulling him into a sitting position. His dead weight in these close quarters makes it a struggle, but Rey just reminds herself of every piece of salvage she’s ever dragged across the Jakku desert, tells herself that he is no different. He’s a prize won from a wreckage, and the most valuable to date.

After an interlude of just holding him, feeling his breath on her shoulder, Rey stands, lifts her knee and juts out her hip, and drapes him across her back and starts to climb out.

“Rey!”

Evidently BB-8 could not locate a hover-stretcher, but he has returned with the next best thing. Chewbacca climbs up the side of the x-wing to relieve her of Ben, and Rey jumps down and into Rose’s waiting arms. They hug firmly, Rose patting Rey in greeting and assurance; she keeps her hands at her forearms when she pulls away.

“It’s great to see you,” she says. “Especially alive! We were all so worried!”

“Sorry,” Rey replies a little absently, blinking down at Rose. “I didn’t want to…” She shakes her head, restarting. “I’m here now.”

Rose turns her attention to the x-wing. “I can’t believe you made it in that rustbucket,” she says with a faint, forced laugh. “But hey, R2’s still kicking, so why not a crummy old…” She trails off as her eyes fall upon Chewie and his charge. She points at them and speaks without looking back at Rey. “Who is that.”

“Ben Solo,” Rey tells her, fixating on his face.

“Ben Solo as in-”

Chewie interrupts with a roar, and Rey indicates behind and up, at the lodgings of the Resistance base.

“My bunk,” she answers. “He’s hurt, I’ll have to get my hands on some bacta…”

“We’ll go to the medbay together,” resolves Rose, taking Rey’s arm and tugging her along. Chewbacca starts to move off in the opposite direction, calling back one more question as he does so, to which Rey insists, “I’m fine!”

The women weave through the crowd. Rey glimpses figures she knows; General Calrissian speaking with the woman from Kef Bir, C-3PO apparently operating as normal with R2-D2 at his side, Commander D’Acy embracing her wife, Norra Wexley with Karé Kun - but no Snap. All those and more, and among them, Finn and Poe.

Finn catches sight of her and all but sprints, moving swiftly while holding back just enough so Poe may follow. They and the rest of the crowd disappear from Rey’s view as she and Rose duck into the medbay tent where PZ-4CO aids Harter Kalonia in attending to wounded, but surviving, soldiers. Rey regards them with some detachment, considering that she could heal them. She considers that she could heal Ben, too, and that maybe it was pointless coming here - maybe it was a mistake to leave him–

Rose pushes a medkit into Rey’s arms, looking her quite sternly in the eye.

“Ben Solo as in General Organa’s son. As in Kylo Ren. That Ben Solo.”

“He saved my life.” Rey’s voice is quiet at first so she forces herself to bring up the volume. “More than once.” She steels herself for an argument, raising her chin almost indignantly. “I know there’s no use in trying to explain, so I won’t. The fact of the matter is that we belong together, I won’t be apart from him, which means if he can’t stay here, neither can I.” Despite her airs of confidence, her shoulders slump. “I wish I could make you understand.”

When she returns her gaze to Rose’s face, she doesn’t see what she expected at all. Her lips are pressed together and her eyes are hard with determination, yet she screams compassion. Total confidence in what’s being imparted to her. Rose takes back the kit and puts it down for the moment, and clasps Rey’s hands in hers.

“I do understand,” she says sincerely.

Rey blinks and her vision is clouded by tears; blinks again and they burst free of her eyes just as she sucks in a shuddering breath. She and Rose hug one more time, parting as Finn and Poe loudly barge inside to grab hold of them both, joyful for their success and pleased by her return. Rey drags her forearm across her eyes to stop herself from crying any further, and puts a grin on her face.

* * *

When Rey returns to her modest, open-air quarters, she sees Chewbacca standing guard and feels grateful. She notices for the first time a medal tucked into his bandolier, and notes it away as a conversation for another time. Just for now, though, she offers her deepest thanks for bringing Ben here safely, as well as for all else he’s done to support and help her. Even after she feared she’d killed him.

Chewie keeps his affections simple. He nods and pats her on the head, then quickly departs - but not before mentioning something about Ben.

“Yeah, I know,” replies Rey, looking over her shoulder at where he lies on her bed, to his resting face, where he once bore an angry scar. “I think I did that.”

Once alone, Rey draws her set of makeshift curtains around her little corner, not completely able to cut herself off from the outside world but still gaining some privacy. She doesn’t take much notice of how her chest of things has been obviously rifled through by a cone-nosed droid and just sets it back up so she can put the medkit on top of it, which she herself begins to messily investigate. She smears a bit of bacta on the wound on her forehead, using the rest on Ben. She wraps his broken leg and sticks little square bandages on his arms, his knuckles, his face.

Some quiet voice in a far corner of her mind is surprised at her for how easily she handles him, how she doesn’t hesitate to make contact as she once might have. It advises she keep her hands to herself. Rey identifies that voice as not being her own. Of course she’s going to touch him, how ridiculous would it be if she didn’t? Ben is injured and  _ someone _ is going to have to put their hands on him, and if it’s going to be anyone - this thought occurs to Rey with a spark of possessiveness - it’s going to be her.

Rey wipes the remaining bacta off her hands and closes up the medkit. At long last she relieves herself of the Skywalker lightsabers and puts them away with the Jedi texts; she no longer feels a stalwart attachment to any of them, like she doesn’t need them anymore. The thought passes her by as she returns to Ben’s side, catching his brow furrowing and jaw clenching. He inhales deeply, fully filling his lungs, and breathes it all out when Rey puts her hand on his face. His expression slackens and he’s peaceful once more.

Rey studies him. He seems different, but in a way where he’s also the same. There’s something there that identifies him as completely, utterly free - and completely, utterly hers. She thinks of his smile. Her hand lingers at his jaw, fingers brushing his bloodied lips. Completely, utterly hers.

The noise outside doesn’t die down for hours on end. The Resistance fighters have probably put on an impromptu party; music plays, people shout and cheer, and it sounds like they’ve uncovered a secret stash of alcohol from somewhere in the base. Good for them, Rey supposes, but she doesn’t feel like joining them. Her aching body has finally caught up with her, and her limbs feel heavy and her neck is sore. A headache forms right at the back of her head as she tries to process all she’s been through, so she shelves those thoughts for now. They can wait.

Everything can wait. She shuffles into a slightly more comfortable sitting position and lays her head on Ben’s chest, and falls asleep.

In her dream, Leia is dressed in a black gown, her shoulders draped with shiny, shimmery material, her fingers adorned with rings, her hair braided down her back. The rest of the details are fuzzy, but these are the things Rey inherently knows. Watching from an unspecified distance, she doesn’t feel as though she’s in her own body, more like a spectral bystander, and even if she had anything to say she doubts she could make a sound. But that’s okay.

Leia comes forward and puts her arms around a tall figure obscured by clouds that must be Ben, and as he leans into her the mist clears and he is solidly there. He is forever finished with denying himself his feelings, so when he begins to weep, he's not afraid of being seen.

“Thank you,” says Leia, and Rey knows that she’s speaking directly to her, even if she’s not fully present with them. “Thank you. Thank you.”

Ben tries to speak but just can’t. He withdraws and stares down at his mother, open-mouthed, desperate to say all he needs to say. Leia smiles and shakes her head at him, already knowing. She keeps her hand on his arm as she steps back.

“I’m so proud of you. I couldn’t have asked for a better son.” Her tone is earnest, then a more playful smile crosses her face and she jostles her son’s arm like a call to action. “Now what are you still doing here? There’s a whole galaxy out there, and girls don’t like being kept waiting.”

* * *

Rey’s eyes open to pitch black and she thinks she’s gone blind. Really it’s just that she’s buried her face into Ben’s neck, and as she raises her head the faint lights of machinery and ships greet her through the curtain, through the opening to the grounds below. A handful of techs attend to a dying fire pit, but aside from them, there's no one around. They’ve all taken to their quarters or at least retreated indoors. The air is cool. It is very late.

As her eyes adjust to the darkness, Rey notices that BB-8 and D-O have chosen her console as the one to charge on tonight. It’s touching, but what worries her is the evidence that indicates she had an organic visitor, maybe more than one, while she was asleep. The curtains are parted wider than she left them. The medkit has disappeared. Rey takes steady breaths to keep her heart from beating too quickly, but she can’t help but feel a little panicked. Anyone could have been here, anyone could have seen Ben.

If it were Rose or someone who didn’t know his face, then, maybe no harm done - but if it were Poe or Finn, as the droids presence could suggest…

She tells herself that if they were going to imprison or kill him, they’d have done it already. Maybe Rose had spoken to them, maybe they understood. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Behind her, Ben groans and shifts, and she whirls to face him. She plants her hands at either side of his head in wait. He sighs through his nose and his eyelids start to flutter, Rey feels him roll his hip against her knee so she takes it down out of the way, then reconsiders and climbs up and perches on his stomach. It might be a bit much, but it’s what she wants to do and no one can stop her.

Ben hums in mild discomfort, furrowing his brow and tensing his shoulders, then releases and opens his eyes. His head is turned to the side so he’s not looking at her, however Rey is content to admire his profile. She adjusts her position so she’s not right in his face, lays one hand on his chest while keeping her other arm propped beside him. Still not aware of her, Ben blinks slowly, opening his mouth to sigh, then he finally turns his head and looks up at her.

“Rey.” He is awed, disbelieving. He squints into the gloom that surrounds them, and his hand comes up to settle on her waist, brushing her thigh on the way. “I think I’m dead.”

Rey had been doing her best to hold down the massive smile that wanted to take over her face, but she can’t keep it in after hearing that. “Not if I can help it,” she declares perhaps too loudly, pressing her forehead against his. An electric sort of energy passes between them, devotion taking a new form alongside all the others. She tries to bury herself in him. “I felt myself going, I was  _ gone _ , and you brought me back. Ben…” She holds him and shamelessly kisses his forehead, the bridge of his nose, the corner of his mouth. “You’re here. You’re alive.”  _ You’re mine. _

Ben jolts beneath her, gasping in every breath she lets out. “I didn’t think I’d…” He wriggles and Rey lifts her bottom obligingly as he tries to sit up, grunting with effort. “No. No, I’m alive,” he begrudgingly agrees, not meeting Rey’s gaze as she settles into his lap. “I doubt I’d feel much if I were dead.”

She tries to go back in to hug him, but he puts his hand on her shoulder and holds her an arm’s length away. He looks her up and down, silently appreciating every piece of her, and when he finally meets her eyes his hand moves from her shoulder to the back of her neck, lacing his fingers through her hair. She can’t help but alternate between his eyes and his mouth, how he works his jaw in thought.

“Can you please kiss me,” she just about snaps at the same time that Ben softly admits, “I love you.”

They fall silent for a minute before speaking over one another again. Rey asks, “What did you say,” while Ben clears his throat and says, “Yeah. Yes, sorry,” and pulls her over, kissing her gently, chastely. It’s the sweetest gesture she’s ever been paid, but Rey is up to her ears in impatience. She opens her mouth and fully presses her body into his, aching at the rightness of it. His reaction is to tighten his hold on her and shiver, which she chases and then repeats back at him.

They have to break their kiss to share a laugh over their own awkward eagerness; they part to recover but keep close, smiling and teary-eyed and wanting each other so much.

“I love you, too,” whispers Rey.

“That’s good,” Ben replies. “I was starting to think I’d misread the situation.”

“You might have, actually.” The joke doesn’t work too well thanks to her voice breaking.

He cups her face in both hands, brushing her tears away with his thumb as he tries to suppress his own sob - and they sit there and hold and kiss and cry, and confess and confess and confess.

* * *

Apart from a few key figures in its leadership being recently killed, or at least declared dead, the First Order thrives. The war will continue. But it has no place for Rey, not anymore. She has fulfilled her personal obligations, her obligations to the Jedi and to the galaxy, and it cannot ask any more of her than that. She’ll still fight when she must; she’ll do whatever it takes to preserve what she’s carved out for herself, what she has yet to carve. She just won’t do it with the Resistance.

It doesn’t really want her anymore, if it ever did in the first place.

It certainly doesn’t want Ben. Most everyone here doesn’t know him for who he is, it’s on Rey’s word alone that they don’t blast him on sight - another reason that they’ve fallen from her favour. His presence is kept secret while his leg repairs, and as far as the general population knows, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren is most assuredly dead. The stories vary on where and how he died, slain on Kef Bir by the last Jedi, killed on Exegol by any number of things - some even say he was dead before that, from as far back as the battle on Starkiller Base. In the high rankings of the Resistance they know better. They know Kylo Ren barely existed in the first place. And as for the title of Supreme Leader, based on sliced First Order transmissions, it’s already been passed onto someone else, someone else they should be focusing their attention on rather than the last Skywalker in their custody.

Exile it is, then. Perhaps accompanied by a Jedi who will make sure he stays away. They get ready to leave immediately.

Rey feels everything Ben feels as he steps aboard the  _ Millennium Falcon _ for the first time in many years. There are so many memories in this junky old freighter, so much regret; but it’s in the best shape it’s seen in decades, and it has two pilots that will treat it well. The sadness can and will be written over. Rey ruminates for a second on how many times she was in here while on Jakku, seeing it not as its best self, not yet realising how special it was. Then she stops, channeling her sentimentality elsewhere, and darts outside to hug Finn for a fourth one-last-time.

* * *

The Theed Royal Palace doesn’t belong to them and they don’t plan on staying here, but they’re allowed on the grounds so they may pay their respects to one of its former queens. The Naboo are nice, plus being a direct descendant helps get the doors open. Rey takes it all in with stunned reverence, the finely detailed architecture, the elaborately stylish clothes and the beautiful people wearing them - but none of it means nearly as much to her as all the green. The grass and the gardens, the plant life that is obviously cared for but not forced to be anything different than what it is, their natural growth dictates the path they make down into the fields, through to the ocean.

The oceans of Ahch-To and Kef Bir she found wild and frightening in a way Rey can admire and appreciate, but she would never have found a permanent comfort in them. They weren’t made for her. Rey had long ago decided that nothing ever could be, that she could see and visit many beautiful places, but none of them could ever be wholly welcoming. Nothing would accept her. Nothing would ever feel like home.

Maybe she was born on Naboo, maybe she was not. Who she may have been related to is likewise irrelevant, because it’s home, pure and simple. Gorgeous, green,  _ alive _ . She might not be from here, but she is  _ from here _ . And Ben is, too, isn’t he? His bloodline first appeared on Tatooine, but this is where his  _ family _ began. This is where it will continue; him, her, and whatever may come next. Rey is so excited.

They bury the Skywalker lightsabers here, where they will rest easily and peacefully, as their previous owners do.

Ben hears that the dead emperor owned a second home on Onoam during his chancellor days, and that it remains there still, unused but intact, awaiting an heir no one ever thought would come. It’s a little weird, actually, how pleasantly the Royal House reacts to what is objectively awful news, that a member of the Palpatine family does remain. They give Rey their blessing to take the property for herself, and she and Ben go there right away and burn it down. They burn it to ashes and then take those ashes and throw them out into the void of space where they can’t bother anything or anyone.

Covered in soot and grime, Rey regards the blackened land with great relief. The land itself is relieved too, free of its massive burden that no one dared touch. It’s filthy in a literal sense - but spiritually, clean. Beside her, Ben takes her hand into both of his, carefully stroking her fingers.

“Now what?” he asks.

“Now,” replies Rey, exhaling, “I want to build something new.” After a pause, she needlessly clarifies, “For us both. You know, to live in.”

“Mm.” Ben kisses her brow. “I’d like that.”

And well, he can’t just expect to kiss her without getting a response, and Rey leaps up at him and covers his mouth with hers, and it tastes kind of gross due to how ashy they are, but it’s still right. Very right. Just as right as how he picks her up as easy as anything, and she wraps her legs around him, and they just do that because they love each other, and because they can.

He resists her pulls for a second to put his forehead against hers. He closes his eyes, and when he speaks his voice low and sure. “I want you to marry me.”

And Rey laughs because, at least going by how things operate on Jakku, she already has, but she’s still so delighted and swept away - and he’s literally sweeping her away, carrying her back to the  _ Falcon _ while she just laughs and squirms and kisses him, declaring  _ yes, yes, yes _ .

**Author's Note:**

> it wasn't relevant so it's not in there, but rey ends up with the same new saber we saw her have. they also stopped off at kef bir to comb the ocean for ben's saber because like.....broe you can heal that shit. that's what happens. i said so.
> 
> instead of blue/red they now have gold/silver 😊
> 
> and theyre fucking but i dont need to tell you that


End file.
